I passed the test on April 11th AT/AT/AT!
• I started prep over a year ago but waited to take the test till the agile materials were included as I predominately work with agile or hybrid projects.
Prep:
• I took a course based on just the PMBOK material a year ago to get the 35 credits to apply, I attended targeted 1 hour nightly sessions from
PM exam coach as a refresher of meta topics, read through the PMBOK for the domains I needed more info on, read the entire Agile Practices book,
read the feedback from this forum and, most importantly, practiced exam questions from the simulator.
• It really all came together with the Exam Simulator from here – both the questions themselves and the answers which
provided training/context/tips and the reference page to look at.
• I found the simulator quizzes were good but too many were on the from PMBOK 6 so I switched to taking the exams and they were
excellent and modeled, in my opinion,
similar to way the actual exam questions were.
• Read the answers after the exam - both the ones I marked during the test to review what PrepCast had to say about the answers
and every question I answered incorrectly.
Exam questions – what worked for me:
After getting 60-65% repeatedly, I figured out the pattern I needed (based on the well worded PM PrepCast exam questions answers and
context provided after each question) to increase to 75% consistently was to, for every question, do the following:
1. double-check that determined what type of project approach is used in question (predictive, agile, hybrid)
and cross out incorrect questions based on type of project
2. double-check that determined what domain and stage/task question context indicates the project is in
and cross out answers from incorrect domain/task
3. re-read the question (usually I was down to 2 viable options at this point)
4. answer the question based on “the best fit” (the tips in the answers for choose best fit from PrepCast were good guidance)
Exam itself items of note:
• Getting ready for the test - I had decided to take the exam in the least decorated/lived in room of the house
but they were picky about what was in the room and made me close and lock the window, close the curtains,
remove my wrist pad, and take down a tiny piece of art that had a pattern on it.
They also didn’t let me put a sweater on so I suggest making sure the room is able to stay at a comfortable temperature.
• One of the challenges was completing the exam in time - I was down to 4 minutes when I answered the last one.
• The test that I took had two optional breaks, each one avail after 60 questions, that didn’t count against the clock.
• No questions required a calculator but I did use the built in one in the menu to check the rate I was answering the
questions & estimate the amount of time left.
• As others had indicated, you could login to PMI.org about 15 minutes later to see the details beyond
that lovely “Congratulations” screen.
My thanks to the PrepCast team and best wishes to other aspirants!
